Many products, such as alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, are unsuitable for minors, but are sold in locations where minors are present. Accordingly, vendors of such products are generally required to verify the age of buyers who appear to be underage. However, verification of a buyer's age by means of observing the buyer's identification card or driver's license, and calculating the buyer's age therefrom, is unreliable because such documents can be easily falsified, or the customer's age may be miscalculated by the vendor. Worse yet, oftentimes such verification may not occur at all because the fast-paced sales of high volume stores leave little time for store clerks to mentally calculate a customer's age, and such verification is inconvenient.
Therefore, a more reliable and efficient method for verification of age and other information, such as the expiration date of a driver's license, is needed. The implementation and widespread use of electronic devices that can readily and reliably verify the correct information contained in driver's licenses and photo identification cards (ID cards) would further discourage falsification of ID cards and serve as an important deterrent for underage teenagers against activities such as providing false evidence of age to obtain alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, and other "age-controlled" products and services.